


a place on the team

by eutrash (AreteNike)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Langst, Mild Angst, Teamwork, possibly pre-s3 too idr, pre-s4, starboy lance zine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 21:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13016526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AreteNike/pseuds/eutrash
Summary: Lance feels out of place, until the team shows him he's needed.Written for Starboy: an unofficial Lance zine!





	a place on the team

**Author's Note:**

> second round of preorders is open till dec 31st! [go go go](https://lancezine.tumblr.com/post/168452751009/pdfs-of-starboy-an-unofficial-lance-zine-are)
> 
> there was art to go with this and on the off chance the artist posts it, ill update with a link. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Lance is beginning to wonder why he's even here.

Well, it's obvious in a literal sense why he's here; he snuck out of the Garrison and broke Shiro out and now he's on an alien warship a billion lightyears from home. That's not the question; the question is why he's a _paladin._

The others, they all have these amazing skills. Pidge is some kind of child prodigy tech genius who can hack into anything and write programs to translate alien languages, of course she's a paladin. Hunk, too; he's crazy smart and loyal to a fault, the physical embodiment of "do no harm but take no shit," so it makes sense he's a paladin too. Shiro's been Lance's hero for years now and he was already an incredible pilot, and his time in captivity made him even stronger combat-wise—oh yeah, and he doesn't give up on _anyone._ He's like, the ideal paladin. Except he disappeared, and now the fifth paladin is Allura, who's as strong as she is beautiful, terrifying in combat, probably magic, and already connected to the lions _anyway_ because they're bound to her quintessence or something.

And then there's Keith. Fucking _Keith._ He can fight, he can lead, he can _fly_ —he's a naturally talented pilot, everyone at the Garrison said so. He's everything Lance wants to be without even trying. The only reason Lance made it to the fighter pilot ranks at all is because Keith got kicked out, a fact that his professors _loved_ to remind him of every time Lance didn't quite meet their expectations.

And what _does_ Lance have to offer? He can fly, he can fight, sure, but he's not a genius or a prodigy or an alien princess. He's just... some guy. He's probably only a paladin because there needs to be five to form Voltron and he was in the right place at the right time. It figures, really. The only thing exceptional about Lance is his _dumb luck._

And even that fails him when the other paladins are around, because every chance he gets to shine someone else steals the spotlight.

With Pidge, it’s on a mission together. They come to a control panel that looks a lot like the one he and Keith had found in the Balmera and he realizes that if they grab the arm of one of the drones they'd taken down they could activate it.

And how much of that does he get to say? "Oh, hey! I've seen this befo—"

"I'm in," Pidge interrupts, and sure enough she'd already hacked into it. In like ten seconds.

Like, come on. How's he supposed to contribute to the team if everyone steals his chances right from under him?

Hunk, on the other hand, is great, usually; he's the kind of guy that's mindful of people getting left out. Thing is, his bayard is kind of overkill, and sometimes Lance will be picking off drones from a distance and doing a _great_ job of it, thank you very much, and then Hunk will show up and just obliterate everything.

And Lance's cry of, "I had it!" is met with Hunk's assertion, "I was only trying to help!"

Well, Lance doesn't _need_ help. He was doing _fine_ with his own bayard, which is more precise than Hunk's but no less effective! And then Hunk ends up with all the credit. Lance can't help but feel betrayed.

And Allura, don't even get him started on Allura. He challenged her during training once—just who could take down more bots in five minutes, he's not suicidal enough to take her head on. He figured he had the advantage since he can just shoot them down from afar while she had to get in there and beat them up herself.

Yeah, he lost. Badly.

Stupid aliens and their childhood war training. If she's so strong why does she even need the rest of them anyway? Especially Lance, because wow, guess who _else_ can pilot the blue lion? And he only gets to pilot the red lion sometimes because _somebody_ (namely, Keith) has to fly black for Voltron. Lance is just _leftovers,_ apparently.

Speaking of Keith, fuck that guy. They set out on a mission on foot and Keith is doling out tasks like he's Oprah, and when he gets to Lance what does he say? Fucking "Lance, you're on backup." _Backup._ "Stay here and cover us if anything goes wrong." Because it's only if one of his _perfect_ teammates fucks up that Lance is gonna get to _do_ anything.

"Do you not think I can handle it, is that it?" Lance demands. "You're keeping me out of the mission because you think I'm gonna fuck up."

Keith makes a surprised face and says something about his bayard being long range and it's important they have an escape route and blah blah blah. Lance doesn't believe a word of it. The guy obviously has it out for him because Lance is the weakest link or whatever.

The point is, they leave him behind.

He paces as he waits for the rest of the team to do their jobs, and definitely _doesn't_ sulk, thank you very much. It's just, they _always_ leave him behind. Literally and metaphorically. Every time he thinks he has a chance to get ahead, to shine, they overshadow him—and every time he feels just a little bit worse, shrinks a little further inward, like his friends are towering monoliths of skill and power and he's stuck at their feet, looking upward at heights he'll never reach.

Or stuck in a doorway looking down a dark hallway he's not supposed to enter, and half-listening to a conversation he's not a part of.

Then Hunk emerges from the darkness and points back over his shoulder.

"We're swapping," he says. "They need you down there."

"What, really?"

"Yes, really," says Keith through his helmet. "And hurry."

Keith is asking for his help. Lance is gonna hold this over him _forever._

"Coming," he says, and hurries down to join the others.

When he gets there Pidge tugs him over to the railing in some kind of drydock or lock; the walkway they're on is parallel to another across the room, with nothing between but water. The outer doors are shut and the water is high. There are a handful of dead drones and scorch marks on the walls—Hunk's handiwork.

"There." She points at a small panel a couple feet above the water's surface on the other side of the room. "Shoot that."

Finally someone recognizes his talent. "You got the right man for the job, Pidge," he says as he lines up the shot.

Behind them, Keith heaves a sigh, and Allura snorts. Disbelievers. Lance'll show them.

He takes a deep breath, lets it out, and fires.

The moment he pulls the trigger though— _before_ his shot hits the panel, which it _does_ —the facility alarm starts going off.

"What did you do!?"

"It wasn't me!" Lance turns on Keith. "It went off before it hit!"

“Guys?” asks Hunk.

A bridge starts to extend across the water, but moments later the lights in the room turn red and it freezes, still too far away to use.

"Dammit," Pidge hisses. "If we could just get to that console—"

"It's on the other side!"

"I _know,_ Keith."

“Guys, what’s going on?” Hunk asks.

"We should pull back," says Allura, "before our exit route is compromised."

Lance frowns. What are they talking about? The water's high enough that with a handhold—like the panel he just shot out—they could swim across and climb up the other side.

"That console, Pidge?" he asks, pointing at the boxy thing by the bridge.

"Yeah? Shooting it won't help, though—"

"Nah, I got this," he says, and seals his helmet and dives in.

The swim across is easy, and the panel is just within reach, like he thought; with a kick and a heave upwards, he grabs the edge of the walkway and climbs up. Then he hits the bridge button on the console.

Nothing happens. Right, he's not galra. He ducks over to the nearest drone and frees it of its arm, and presses its hand against the button.

"Nice one!" Keith shouts as the bridge resumes its movement. Oh yeah, Lance is on a _roll_ today.

The others hurry across the bridge as soon as it clicks into place across the room; Lance covers them as drones pour through the doorway behind them.

“Pidge, the bridge!” Keith calls. He and Allura hold off the drones that try to follow them across.

“On it!” Pidge ducks in between Lance and the console and works her hacker magic, and the bridge starts retracting again.

“Hunk? How are you doing?”

“I’m good! I’m good,” Hunk responds immediately. “I don’t think they’ve realized why I’m here yet, but you gotta hurry.”

“It should be this way,” Allura says with a gesture. “We need to move.”

“Right. Lance, you got our backs?”

Lance glances over to where Keith is waiting for his response—for _him_. Because everyone has a place on the team, even Lance, and they can’t do this _without_ him.

“Hell yeah I do,” he says.

**Author's Note:**

> find me at [maternalcube](maternalcube.tumblr.com)


End file.
